CIA sending help to FBI as questions mount

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CIA is preparing to send more personnel to help the FBI analyze information relating to terrorism, a U.S. official said Sunday.

The move appears to be the latest indication of closer FBI-CIA cooperation following the September 11 attacks.

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According to the official, who asked not to be identified, a senior manager and about 25 analysts will be detailed to FBI headquarters in Washington to help set up "a robust, analytical intelligence-gathering capability." The official called it a "temporary assignment" that would last "many months."

Another group of CIA analysts will fan out to U.S. cities to review FBI terrorism cases to see whether intelligence clues have been overlooked.

The goal, said the official, would be to search FBI field office files for information which "may not leap out at [FBI agents] as significant" but would stand out to CIA personnel studying "the overall terrorist threat picture."

The official would not say whether those cities would include New York, Phoenix and Minneapolis, cities mentioned frequently in connection with the September 11 investigation and possible missed signals.

"You would expect them to go to the cities where they would be most fruitful," the official said.

The FBI refused to comment on the upcoming changes or any other aspect of the latest phase of the FBI's reorganization. A spokesman noted the FBI and CIA already have personnel working at each other's facilities on terrorism.

FBI Director Robert Mueller recently told Congress there would be increased cooperation with the CIA and other agencies. Mueller's announcement of plans on what the FBI calls phase two of its reorganization will likely be released this week, though no specific date has been set.

In the first phase of Mueller's sweeping changes announced earlier this year, he noted changes in the management structure that provide a more direct hands-on role for the FBI director.

The official said Mueller requested the additional CIA help and said CIA Director George Tenet had approved of the project.

Asked if FBI agents were likely to welcome CIA analysts in field offices, the U.S. official said the FBI might "welcome the opportunity to work with people with greater depth of experience" in terrorism cases.

The move comes as lawmakers in both parties questioned the two agencies' handling of information prior to the September 11 attacks.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, speaking on CNN's "Late Edition," repeated his call for public hearings into the matter.

"Basically, Americans do not understand the gravity of the oversights on what appears to be the case with both the FBI and the CIA," Specter said.

"And that's why I believe -- and I have seen with my experience in the Senate the value of public hearings -- when FBI Director Mueller has to answer these questions, when CIA Director Tenet has to answer why the president wasn't warned in the August 6 briefing about the tall buildings being in jeopardy, the White House and the CIA headquarters."

On August 6, 2001, President Bush received an intelligence report that cited the possibility that Osama bin Laden might be involved in a plane hijacking. Some Democrats have said that the briefing information should be released to congressional committees.

Also appearing on "Late Edition," Carl Levin, D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was unhappy with the performance of the FBI and the CIA.

"I'm dissatisfied with the failure to look into their own failures, and I think both of them have to be seriously looked into," Levin said.

"In many, many ways, they had a number of opportunities before the 11th. It's absurd to suggest that there weren't many signals that there could be an attack by an airplane on buildings in this country."

-- CNN National Security Producer Pam Benson and CNN Justice Department Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report.